You too can live through exams!*

*Results may vary.

My contracts exam is tomorrow and I've spent most of the day cleaning my apartment.

Granted, I've had 4 days to study exclusively for this exam and  most of the hard-core studying took place over the last couple days. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The exam period is an experience, to say the least. Within moments after finishing my last slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, I was already thinking two weeks ahead to the looming  exams in Torts and Civil Procedure, my two most difficult classes.

In those two weeks my classmates and I had to pull off a difficult feat - we had to essentially relearn the course material and master it in time for the exam. While the task may sound difficult - and it probably would have been close to impossible in college - we were given the entire Thanksgiving break, plus another week off before exams in order to arm ourselves with knowledge of Personal Jurisdiction and Negligence. (Notably, that week off before the exams is called "Reading Week," though it may have well been called "Outlining Week.")

I took advantage of three tools to study for my exams:

• Outlines

                 Since early October I had been building outlines for my 4 classes - Property, Civ Pro, Torts, and Contracts. Creating them was simple enough: For each class, I would  list the major topics and subtopics (ususally by looking back through the syllabus/casebook) and then paste in relevant notes. The result was an outline that didn't look too pretty, but the entire course was now boiled down into 1 document.

                 As for length, my outlines tended to run in the 20 page range, but with lots of white space in between. As my core classes do not allow us to bring our outlines with us to the Fall Exams, it was mainly created as a way to refresh my knowledge of the material.

               A word of the advice for the Fall Exams. Get your outlines done by the Thanksgiving Break. If you can manage this, or at least get most of them done, you will be in good shape for studying.Your material will all be in one place, and you can then move to the second tool.

•  Attack Sheets

               An Attack Sheet is a stripped down outline, either for the whole course, or a particular topic. I broke my attack sheets down by topic. These quick summaries never ran more than a few pages. The reason to create attack sheets is they are more accessible than outlines and they provide a quick list of issues/elements to remember. They also provide yet another way of looking at the material. Remember, this act of creating outlines/attack sheets forces you to remember and synthesize what you've studied.

             For instance, the element of Duty in Negligence is full of many examples and exceptions. It takes up many pages in my outline. But one of my Duty attack sheets merely lists the different exceptions so I can remember the Duty "universe." I am particularly fond of my Medical Malpractice/Informed Consent attack sheet, which is basically a comparison table.

• Practice Exams

             These are the Holy Grail for law students. Practice Exams allow you to face the enemy again and again, without the stress of having your grade on the line. In many cases, these practice exams are actual past exams that professors have given. You may even be able to get answers for them too.

            I took many exams under timed conditions, which really helped me get a sense of my time management. When I got tired though, I simply tried to spot as many issues in 20 minutes for a 1 hour exam, for instance.
       
             My professors handed out several practice exams for each class, though I found many more through my school library. If you have the opportunity, take an exam and bring it to your professor to get their impressions. If you have a study group, consider taking them together and comparing answers.

            Practice exams also let you mess up before it counts. I missed several large issues taking practice exams, but those failures forced me tor remember the issues come exam time. 

           The more you get used to taking practice exams under timed conditions, and being able to outline/spot issues effectively, the more you will be prepared for the big exam when it counts.

***

A few closing thoughts. When Beagle and I started this blog, we thought we would have time to regularly update you on our progress. It seems we underestimated our work load. But fool us twice, shame on you. Hopefully now that we are used to the work we can get back to writing the occasional entry.

The first semester has been exhilarating in its pace and the sheer the absorption of knowledge. Next semester for me sees the addition of a new class, Criminal Law, on top of my existing workload.

Bring it on.